Gay people forced to flee the US

I am not surprised really, actually, these are the kind of things I expect from any “democratic” government.

Anyway, we will have “equal” rights eventually, even though it is kind of obvious that civilized talking won’t do the job.

Even to this day there are people who hate people because of their color of skin.. I don’t think hatred against people with a diferent sexual orientation will disapear in this century.

Things have changed but not near enough to equalize the playing feild.

After 30 years with the same person(we are both gay males)things have progressed in many areas.

When it comes to areas that involve entitlements/benefits either from a employer, government, doctor, health care provider or any service provider, services are not there, or are difficult/impossible to get approved in a timely manner causing many hardships some almost completely insurmountable.

Hetro couples recieve these benefits with few obsticles gay/lesbian couples find there is no safety net even though the tax burden is greater.

Watching the current administration is frightening the war mongering and inflamimg of discrimination outrageous. Not to mention how they are trying to frighten people who have limited exposure other lifestyles and or cultures. If you do not fit their little defination of what is acceptable to them you are disposable.

The above is also true of the elderly who are extremely vulerable to negative life events.

Ooops I, ranting sorry, but this is an area I have to deal with daily and the unfairness really gets to me.

I was discussing with one of my brothers (a Ditto-head) the subject of gay marriage. His take was that I already have the right to marry: I’m free to marry a woman just as he is. He was serious; I was dumbstruck. I guess we can all pack up and go home because we’ve already achieved full equality.

I am a transgender person, male to female, who left the United States for Canada when the US declared war on Iraq. I renounced my citizenship at the US Consulate in Vancouver, then requested asylum as a refugee with Canadian Immigration. (I stated I had experienced persecution in four ways: as an ally of medical marijuana users, as a transgender/gay person, as a First Nations tribe member (my great-grandmother, on my dad’s dad’s side), and as a pacifist. The process is not quick, and I have regular hearings towards my being granted asylum. I never gave thought to having to leave the United States prior to the attack on Iraq, I just suffered and believed what I was told: That everyone was equal and was entitled to representation in the US.

It was not until I faced continuous attack for not being “anti-war” and for being pro-peace that I realized I was in the wrong place/in danger. So I took drove from Key West, FL, my home, to the British Columbia border, and entered, not yet realizing what I was about to do and become. But the feeling of flight that overcame me at the border, and the peace of mind and spirit I experienced in the next few days made it clear to me, for my own well-being I was going to leave the United States and become an expatriate.

That was a year and a half ago. Not long in ordinary living circumstances, an entire lifetime in my present circumstances. My personal identity has blossomed considerably in the setting I have chose in BC. Being gay in Canada is ordinary, without difficulty. Becoming transgender was a natural extention of my own developing identity. I experienced well-being to the extent that I was comfortable becoming myself: A woman. Police included, people are more at ease and less concerned with others lives and lifestyles (except out of good-natured curiousity on occassion). Hate crimes are the exceptions to the rule that everyone is entitled to live their life in the manner one best sees fit. Harrasment is considered unaccptable behavior.

This is not to say that I haven’t made changes to fit in, as I have and do. There is a lifetime of philisophic nationalist dogma and enculturization that I daily must overcome. In order to do so, I must constantly be open to the experience. But in doing so, it does more to reinforce my own personal ethics and tolerance. Where I came from was the opposite.

As a creative person, I have completely cut-off my self from my former life in the States, and made a new one here. I have family I am in contact with. Real friends visit. One stayed.

What is happening in the States is a mystery to all of us not there. But as a former resident, I wish everyone well and good journeys who would make the jump from freedom in principle to freedom in fact.